Thursday, November 10, 2011

Alpha Geek

Being a geek has its ups and downs. For example, if you work with geeks (I am in the Information Technology department of a large company) then the social rules are much as they are for wolves. There is an alpha geek, and beta geeks. The alpha does not take kindly to being challenged - you must submit to their authority on Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Unix, and C-# or risk being bitten hard.

At one time I may have been an alpha geek, but I no longer even pretend. Oh, sure, my kids bought me a Darth Tater (Mr. Potato Head as Darth Vader) for my office, but I am in no way ready to challenge the alpha with his complete Star Wars Action Figure collection, Super Girl poster, and LOTR chess set. When he walks by I lay on the floor and show my belly. It is easier that way. Really.

So despite not competing at work for the alpha position, I am most definitely the alpha around the B&B. Yes, the boy has designs, but like any good cub he defers when it is time to decide the next back episode of Star Trek to queue up on Netflix. As alpha it just felt RIGHT to decide we needed the latest iPad. I had no real reason, just instinct. So we bought.

And then, lo and behold, we found that we could get credit card processing on the iPad. There is a little device we plug into the headphone jack to swipe the card, we type in the amount, and then hand the iPad to the guest who can sign with their finger. We can even email them a receipt if they like.

What does all this mean to our guests? Well, not a lot, other than they are allowed to touch our iPad for a moment. But it is still kinda cool. Not LOTR chess set cool, but we do what we can.

1 comment:

This is a very funny read, I am also surrounded by geeks, however, I find that if I don't bring up any Star Wars references, it stays pretty civil. It sounds like the app you are referring to is Square, it is a great way to take credit transactions; my favorite aspect is that it has paperless receipts, which helps to make your inn a little more "green". Another great thing about the ipad is its ability to surf the web, as I will soon be doing with our office ipad to scour the internet for a Darth Tater...so cool.